August 24th saw the launch of Magic Animation Academy at the Animfest 2007 organised by Prasads Imax and Anim Graphix in Hyderabad. Promoted by Dr Chandrabhushan, Surekha and Sridhar S, the academy will be headed by Sreedhar VT who has just joined as CEO.
Interestingly, the academy is kickstarting straight away with four centres, one in Hyderabad, one in Mysore and a couple of branches in Bangalore and one innovative approach that the academy will make use of is the private Edusat where it will be able to transmit workshops and masterclasses by experts being conducted at one center to all its franchise centers. The educational content will also be permanently stored on the server and made available on demand.
“We want to make a difference” shared Surekha S, “We are people from the working class in animation and we have really worked hard at several animation projects. We understand the nuances of this industry and what it takes to be employed. Our goal is to train people and make sure they get placements”
Present at the occassion of the launch at AnimFest 2007, were chief guest HotShot Telugu director S V Krishna Reddy, other prominent speakers included Nasscom Regional Director Col Ramachandran, Green Gold Animation MD Rajiv Chilakalapudi, Arena Dilsukhnagar Chief Rajasekhar BR, Prasad Imax GM T Srikanth, animation expert C B ArunKumar, AnimationXpress.com‘s Anand Gurnani and Animation Reporter‘s Ranjith Chandrasekaran all of whom were felicitated in true cultural style.
The hosts, Dr Chandrabhushan, MD of Anim Graphix and Surekha and Sridhar S shared about the broader goal of Industry growth and their vision for how their studio as well as newly launched academy venture would contribute towards it.
Sreedhar VT shared, “Students will be given internship at Animgraphix. The faculty will be focused and from a production background. We will be using edusat and derive every possible benefit from it with transmission of focused masterclasses as well as workshops on film apreciation, background painting and alternate arts. We will also create a learning objects repository which will be available internally via intranet to the students”
Giving his best wishes to the festival and the newly launched institute, Col Ramachandran shared, ” I am glad to see the growth in the animation education space and am sure that the industry which is poised for exponential growth will benefit from the growth of the animation education sector”
Arena Dilsukhnagar‘s Rajasekhar BR, gave his best wishes to Magic sharing, “It has taken me nine long years to build Arena Dilsukhnagar into the largest animation education center in the country. I wish and hope that you will do the same with magic in nine months”
Local hero Rajiv Chilakalpudi who is also the hero of local animation content in India made a presentation on Indian Animated content and how the animation IP space was beggining to show growth. He also showcased his Krishna features as well as other upcoming features that will be released later this year.
Giving a future shock presentation, CB Arunkumar who has always impressed with his passionate and emphatic presentations explained to the audience the history of animation, trends in terms of style changes and how being flexible and adapting to change was necessary to survive. Arun kept the audience at the edge of their seat and completely glued for more than 30 minutes of his presentation.
In a conversation with AnimationXpress.com, Sridhar S, promoter of the Magic Academy added to the information given by Surekha and VT Sreedhar. ” We will be differentiating our course in several ways and look forward to working in a very complimenting style with the entire industry as well as other players. In fact we are going to focus on things like e learning, medical animation, visualisation and simulation as electives that students can take up”
In all, the four centers of the Magic Animation Academy can take in a maximum of 1000 students and the target that the institute has set to achieve within the coming six to eight months is 500 students. Courses vary from 3 month crash courses to long term 2 year long courses.